Dark Days
by KM2000
Summary: Trouble is brewing in Deltora once again.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I don't own Deltora Quest One, Two or Three. _

**Chapter One**

Sharn stood among the crowds of people in the Great Hall of the Palace. It seemed as if the whole of Del was there for the Full Moon Meeting. They excitedly chattered amongst themselves as they waited for their King to arrive.

But Sharn wasn't there for the Full Moon Meeting. She scanned the area, searching for the person she needed to talk to.

A flash of movement on the stairs caught her eye. Ah! She thought. The Full Moon Meeting was about to commence.

The crowd hushed as their King emerged onto the top of the grand staircase, supporting his heavily pregnant wife despite her glares at him. Sharn had to smile at that. Lief was so like his father. Seven months along in her pregnancy, Jasmine's belly was like an oversized melon. She walked with difficulty, and she was apt to stumble at times. And yet Jasmine hated to be treated as if she were fragile, which was what Lief had been doing since he found out that Jasmine was with child.

Sharn turned away from the happy couple as they began to address the crowd, and reminded herself of what she had to do. She weaved her way towards the edges of the throng of people, where a certain scarred man was standing casually in the shadows of the pillars.

"Doom?" She called out.

He looked up, surprised. "What is it?"

"I need to speak with you urgently, in private, where nobody will hear us."

Doom asked no questions; there was no mistaking the urgency in her tone. "Of course. No one is in the kitchens at the moment. Shall we? "

Sharn nodded, and the two of them hurried unnoticed out of the Hall.


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: I do not own Deltora Quest._

**Chapter Two**

Jasmine walked through the palace garden, loving how the grass felt cool and soft underneath her bare feet. The moon shone down from its place in the sky, flooding the garden with dim light.

When the Full Moon Meeting had ended, she had desperately needed to escape the Great Hall. The very air inside had felt stifling to her. So she had come here.

She scanned the sky, searching for Kree and Filli. She had not been able to take them with her to the Full Moon Meeting, for Tira of Noradz had come to Del for the meeting, and the people of Noradz were frightened of Filli.

But they have no need to be frightened now! She thought absently. The plague of rats was centuries ago.

"Have you dealt with them?" A loud, cold woman's voice broke into her thoughts.

Jasmine tore her eyes from the sky, surprise foremost in her thoughts. She had not expected there to be other people in the garden.

"Yes," a second voice replied. "It will not be long now before the Master claims his kingdom once more."

The Shadow Lord! They were talking about the Shadow Lord. Driven by curiosity, Jasmine walked deeper into the garden, following the sound of the voices.

As she caught sight of the tall stone wall that separated the garden from the rest of the city, she saw a man and a woman standing close to the wall, facing one another. The woman was of slight build, and she had long blonde hair flowing down to her waist. The second speaker was a short man, of stocky build. He had brown hair, as brown as the trees that surrounded him.

Nimbly Jasmine darted behind a nearby tree and watched and listened intently.

"They will not ruin our plans now," the man was saying.

"Good." The woman smiled. Jasmine felt herself shudder. It was a smile of evil.

Then, abruptly the woman's smile turned into a frown. She glared straight at tree Jasmine was hiding behind. "We are being watched!" she hissed.

The man unsheathed his sword and began to descend upon Jasmine's hiding place.

Jasmine reached for the dagger at her belt and grasped it with one hand. She would not be able to run very far before she would be overpowered, for she was with child, and was sluggish. So her only option was to fight.

The man came closer and closer; Jasmine gripped her dagger and prepared to spring...

Before she could, a tall figure streaked through the garden and tackled the man to the ground. There was a struggle, as the man tried to strike the person with his sword, and failed. Soon all that was left of the man was a body with a dark red stain where the heart should be. His eyes were open and staring.

The woman had descended upon the figure crouching over the man, an enraged expression on her face, a dagger in her hand. Jasmine glanced at her dagger, still gripped in her hand, and threw it towards the woman's arm. A howl of pain told her that she had hit her mark.

"You will pay for this! You will be sorry when the Shadow Lord rules Deltora once more!" The woman hissed, before climbing up and over the wall. Jasmine heard the thud of feet landing on ground, and then the pitter patter of running feet.

Jasmine forced herself to move out from behind the tree, to meet her rescuer.

The figure looked up from where it crouched on top of the dead man. Jasmine met dark eyes and a pale face framed with chin length straight dark hair. A woman, Jasmine realized. Her rescuer was a woman.

"Who are you?" she whispered.

"Hello," The woman said. She hauled herself to her feet. "I am Jumara, of the Jalis."

"Why are you here?"Jasmine asked abruptly. It could not be a coincidence that Jumara had appeared at that particular moment. She could be an enemy. But she just saved your life! An insistent voice within her said. How could she be an enemy?

Jasmine pushed the thoughts out of her mind and focused on what Jumara was saying.

"I was walking in the garden when I heard voices. I was curious," Jumara said.

The reply sounded much like her own excuse for being in the garden. Too much, Jasmine decided. She is obviously hiding something.

"You do not look like a person who was only curious," she said aloud.

"It is the truth," Jumara said. Jasmine searched her face for any hint of a lie, but Jumara's expression did not change in the least.

She saw Jumara crouch and pick up an object on the grass. "I think you need this," Jumara said, rising and holding out a hand. Grasped in that hand was the dagger the golden haired woman had wielded. Its blade glinted in the moonlight, and its hilt was richly ornamented.

Jasmine made no move to take it. She stared stonily at Jumara. "I do not need it," she snapped. Jumara was not to be trusted, she was certain. Who knew what she was up to?

Jumara met her glare steadily, and then dropped the dagger. "Alright," she said, turning and running like a gazelle back through the greenery. A minute later, Jasmine was alone in the garden.

Dazed, she bent and collected the ornamented dagger from its place on the grass. She turned in over in her hands. It did not look like any of the ornamental daggers she saw daily in the palace. Its hilt was made of gold. Carved down the handle of the dagger were some strange symbols.

"Ԋԑgnas Pri Klomṑty," she read.

Jasmine frowned, trying to understand the symbols. They made no sense at all!

There was only one person she knew who might be able to make sense of the symbols. She went to seek Lief.

She had thought Lief would know what the symbols meant, but he had no clue. In the Great Hall, after Jasmine had told Lief about the two strangers in the garden, and Jumara, and had showed him the dagger, he took it, examined it, and handed it back, shaking his head.

Jasmine felt her face fall with disappointment. "But could Sharn know? Or Doom?"

Lief's response chilled her to the bone. "Maybe, but Sharn is unconscious. And no one knows where Doom is."

"What has happened?" Jasmine demanded.

"We do not know."

Jasmine stared at the mysterious dagger. It holds the key, she thought. The key to stopping a terrible plan that is afoot. Aloud, she said, "We must find out what this means," she said, gesturing to the dagger. A sudden thought struck her. "The woman who helped me, Jumara, she is of the Jalis. She seemed to know about the dagger, about whatever is going on. We need to go to Jaliad."

"Jasmine, you are with child. I do not think—"

"-that I can look after myself? I am well able to look after myself," she broke in. "Do you have no faith?"

Lief stared at her for a long while. Then he spoke. "Jasmine, you are right. Of course you can look after yourself. But I do not want you to lose our unborn child."

He waited until he saw her nod her head in reluctant agreement. "Then, I will go to Jaliad to ask them about the dagger, and you will stay here."

He left the room, clearly satisfied with his plan. Jasmine soon followed him, annoyed that she would have to wait in the palace, which she still considered a prison, while Lief set out on a quest.

So, as she lay down to bed that night she saw Lief preparing for his journey to Jaliad. And slipped quickly into sleep, not knowing that the next day would be one of the most eventful days of her life.

Little did she know that fate had other plans for her.


End file.
